Episodes
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Excitement Main Text
Hi, this is AJ, welcome to our next lesson. This one is called "Excitement." We're
going to talk about excitement and I'm going to read a little section from a book called
The 4-Hour Work Week, which is a fantastic book. I love this book.
In fact, I'm going to do a few lessons based on sections of this book because I really,
really love it. I think it's just an incredible book that really has a very creative way of
looking at life and work and enjoying yourself.
The theme of the book, really, is enjoying your life. I mean that is really what the book
is all about and Tim Ferriss is the writer of the book. Again, the book's title is The 4-
Hour Work Week written by Tim Ferriss. Absolutely excellent book, I highly
recommend it. Now the section we're going to talk about today is about excitement.
So let me read what Tim has to say about excitement and then l'll talk more about it.
So here we go.
"What do you want? Well, first let's ask a better question. Most people will never
know what they want. I don't know what I want. If you ask me what I want to do in the
next five months for language learning, on the other hand, I do know. It's a matter of
specificity. What do you want is too imprecise to produce a meaningful and actionable
answer. Forget about it.
What are your goals is similarly fated for confusion and guesswork. To rephrase the
question we need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Let's assume we
have 10 goals and we achieve them. What is the desired outcome that makes all the
effort worthwhile? The most common response is what I also would have suggested
five years ago, happiness. I no longer believe this is a good answer. I no longer
believe that happiness is the reason we achieve goals.
Happiness can be bought with a bottle of wine and the idea of happiness has become
ambiguous through overuse. There is a more precise alternative that reflects what I
believe is the actual objective for achieving goals. Bear with me. What is the opposite
of happiness? Sadness? No. Just as love and hate are two sides of the same coin,
so are happiness and sadness. Crying out of happiness is a perfect illustration of this
idea.
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Excitement Vocabulary Text
Hello, this is AJ, welcome to the vocabulary lesson for "Excitement." Let's start.
Our first word is specificity, specificity, a little difficult to pronounce, specificity. In fact,
many native speakers have trouble pronouncing this word, especially if you say it fast
in a sentence, specificity, specificity, specificity. Sometimes have trouble
pronouncing it, too, but I'm doing it correctly now, specificity.
Specificity is the noun. Specificity means, um...specific-ness is what it really means,
right? It means being specific, being detailed, being very exact. It's kind of the
opposite of generality. Generality is the situation of being very general. So, for
example, you say “I want a lot more money." That statement is a generality, right? It's
not detailed. But if you say “I want $2,496", well that statement has specificity. It has
detail. It has specific-ness, so that's specificity.
Our next word is imprecise. Imprecise is an adjective. And, in fact, it's the opposite of
specific and it's the opposite of precise. Precise is very similar to specific, it means
you'd be very exact, very detailed. So, again, “I want $2,496.20." That's precise,
that's detailed.
The opposite is imprecise, meaning not detailed, not precise. Imprecise means "I'd
like some more money," right? That's not detailed. It's very general, it's imprecise.
So Tim Ferris is saying that the question "what do I want", it's an imprecise question.
It's not a specific question, it's too general. It's too imprecise.
Our next word is fated, to be fated. He says the question "what are your goals", that
question is fated for confusion, it's fated to cause confusion. To be fated for means to
be destined for. It means something that absolutely will happen in the future or soon.
So to be fated for confusion, it means it absolutely will create confusion in the near
future or in the far future. So that question, that general question, what are your goals
or what are my goals or what do I want, it's fated to cause confusion. It absolutely will
cause confusion.
Next is the word worthwhile. So he's saying "What is the purpose of goals? Why are
goals worthwhile?" Worthwhile means beneficial. So why are goals beneficial? Why
are goals useful, helpful, good to do, good to have, worthwhile? So worthwhile, again,
beneficial, helpful, useful, worthwhile, so worthwhile, why are goals useful? Why are
goals worthwhile? Why are they worthwhile?
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Missing episodes?
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Automatic English For The People
Excitement POV Text
Hi, this is AJ, welcome to the point of view mini-stories for "Excitement." Let's get
started.
Since last year Brad has needed money for school. He has been very poor since last
year. He lost all his money last year, so since last year he has needed money for
school. Of course, he has had a worthwhile purpose for needing money. He's had a
worthwhile reason for needing money, during this whole time from last year up until
recently.
So Brad has needed money for school since last year and since last year he has had a
worthwhile purpose. And during this time he has thought about money every day. He
has tried to find a way to get more money, but he has failed. Since last year, up until
recently, he has failed to get more money, so he has not been able to go to school.
Well one day he got a great idea, he got a gun and he went to a convenience store.
He went into the store, he pointed the gun at the clerk and he said "Give me some
money!" And the clerk said “Now that's a very imprecise request, how about some
specificity? Don't be ambiguous. Tell me exactly how much you want."
Well Brad was surprised and he was silent for a while. And then finally he said "I don't
know. Ah, bear with me while I think." Well then Brad was silent again. He stood with
the gun, thinking for a long, long time, thinking about the clerk's question, the clerk's
request.
He thought for seventeen and a half hours and then, finally, after seventeen and a half
hours Brad asked for $7,298, precisely. And because Brad's request was precise the
clerk gave it to him. The clerk gave him exactly $7,298. Brad ran home. Then he ran
to school with the money. He paid for school and he started to study again. Of
course, Brad was very, very happy. What a happy story.
Okay, next, same story, this time from a future point of view. This time using a future
timeframe, let's go to the future, shall we?
In the future there will be a student named Brad and Brad is going to need money for
school. He'll be a poor student and he won't have money for school. Brad's going to
think about this problem a lot. Now, of course, he'll have a worthwhile purpose. It's a
worthwhile purpose to need money for school.
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Automatic English For The People
Excitement Mini-Story Text
Hi, this is AJ, welcome to the mini-story for "Excitement."
* * * **
There was a guy named Brad. Brad was a student. Brad was a poor student, he
needed money for school.
What was Brad?
A student, Brad was a student.
What did he need?
He needed money, Brad needed money.
What did he need money for?
For school, Brad needed money for school.
What kind of student was Brad?
Well, he was a poor student. Brad was a poor student and he needed money for
school.
Was he a rich student?
No, of course not, he was not a rich student. He was a poor student. Brad was a poor
student who needed money for school.
So he needed money and he had a worthwhile purpose.
Was his purpose worthwhile? Was it good, beneficial, useful?
Well, yes, it was, it was worthwhile. It was a good, beneficial, purpose.
What was his purpose? Why did he need money?
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Automatic English For The People
The Art of Power Vocabulary Text
Hello, this is AJ. Welcome to the vocabulary lesson for "The Art of Power." Let's get
started right away, here we go.
Our first word is subconscious. We've talked about this word already several times, so
I'll review it quickly. Subconscious means the deep part of your mind. It's the deep
emotions, the deep thoughts. They're not at the top of your mind, you're not thinking
about them. You don't realize that they are there, they're deep down.
And then, of course, the other kind of mind or consciousness is your conscious mind.
Your conscious mind is what you are thinking about right now. You know what you're
thinking about. You can kind of see it or hear it in your brain. But the subconscious is
deeper. You don't see it or hear it immediately, it's not obvious. So that's
subconscious.
Our next word is dormant, dormant. So Thich Nhat Hanh said that often these seeds
of anger or the seeds of violence or the seeds of sadness and depression, often they
are dormant. Dormant means sleeping. Quite simply it means sleeping, so, again,
dormant. If the seeds are dormant it means they're sleeping. They're not growing,
they're not active. They're not awake they are sleeping, so dormant means sleeping.
You hear this word with volcanoes sometimes. They'll say it's a dormant volcano.
Volcano is a big mountain, right? It explodes sometimes. Well if it's a dormant
volcano it's a sleeping volcano. It's not exploding, there's nothing happening, it's
asleep. Okay, so dormant, again, dormant means sleeping or asleep.
Our next word is formation, formation. He says that when these negative emotions,
these negative seeds are fed or watered, when you give them energy they become
mental formations. So a formation is just a thing, an organized thing. So, in other
words, they become real things. They become alive, they become awake, they
become real things.
So before you had this seed of anger, but you weren't angry. It's down there, it's
asleep, nothing is happening. But then maybe you watched the news or you're around
a lot of angry people and then suddenly that seed starts growing. And now anger
becomes real, it becomes a mental formation, it becomes a real idea. It becomes a
real feeling in your brain, in your mind. So, again, formation is something that is real
and organized, something that exists in reality.
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The Art of Power Main Text
Hello, this is AJ, welcome to our next lesson. This lesson is called "The Art of Power"
and it comes from a book. The topic comes from a book with the same name. The
book is called The Art of Power by Thich Nhat Hanh.
Thich Nhat Hanh is a Buddhist Monk, he is a Vietnamese Buddhist Monk and really
one of my favorite writers, one of my favorite people, one of my favorite teachers. And
I've been reading Thich Nhat Hanh's books and listening to his audio teachings for
many, many years and he's a very special guy.
Thich Nhat Hanh, again, he's Vietnamese, a Vietnamese Buddhist Monk, and during
the Vietnam War he created an organization and he created a movement for peace.
So I believe he was in South Vietnam during the War and he did not support either
side. He was not supporting the Communist North. He was not supporting the United
States-backed South. He was just trying to end the War. He was trying to get peace
in Vietnam and the Buddhist Monks that were in his group were doing the same. They
were just trying to help people and trying to stop the War, stop the killing.
Well, unfortunately, as happens in the world, because he would not join either side
both sides didn't like him. So the Americans and the South Vietnamese, they thought
he was bad because he was trying to stop the fighting and the North Vietnamese
Communists, they didn't like him either because he was trying to stop the killing and
the fighting.
And, so, Thich Nhat Hanh, he had to leave Vietnam. His life was in danger from both
sides. And, eventually, he had to leave Vietnam and he could not return. I think he
just recently returned a couple years ago. The Vietnamese Government allowed him
to come back because I guess he's still quite popular in Vietnam.
But, anyway, he moved to France and he started to teach and write books and tapes.
And he created a monastery in France where he teaches people about peace and
about making your life better and about helping other people. And while he is a
Buddhist, many of his students are Christians or Muslim or Jewish or not religious or
Hindus, it doesn't matter. He's not like a strict Buddhist like you must be a Buddhist,
he just wants to teach the principles of peace and understanding and love.
So he's a wonderful person and he's got many great books, this book is called The Art
of Power. And, of course, the power he's talking about is the power to be good, the
power to control your own life and to have a good life and to help other people. So it's
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Hello, this is AJ. Welcome to the POV stories for "The Art of Power." Let's start.
Since 2002 Sally has craved chocolate. She has wanted it every day, every hour of
her life since 2002. She has become, unfortunately, super fat because she has craved
chocolate so much. So Sally, since 2002, has become super fat because she has
craved chocolate every day and every hour.
Now, of course, during this time she has wanted to lose weight. She has wanted to
lose weight all this time. Every day she has thought about it. Every day she has
thought, oh, I want to lose weight. In fact, every day she has tried to suppress her
craving for chocolate. She has tried to push down the craving. She has tired to
pretend that she didn't crave chocolate.
But, of course, this suppression has failed. It has always failed. In fact, one day it
failed in a huge way, it was a super big failure one day. Because one day she saw a
candy bar in the store and the candy bar triggered her craving and she bought 4,000
chocolate candy bars. She ate all of them in one day.
So on that day she stopped trying to suppress her craving. Instead she decided to
study yoga. And she went to a yoga studio and she studied yoga. By studying yoga
she learned discipline and diligence. And because she learned diligence her
chocolate cravings lessened. They got weaker and weaker, until one day they
became totally dormant, totally asleep, totally quiet. Her chocolate cravings became
dormant.
And after that she ate only wholesome, healthy food. And because she ate only
wholesome food she became thinner and thinner. In fact, she became a thin,
gorgeous and sexy cow. And so all the male cows wanted her, they her because she
was thin, gorgeous and sexy.
Okay, that's the end of our first POV story. Next we go into the future. You already
know this, so let's do it! Let's start.
In the future there will be a cow and her name will be Sarah. Sarah is going to crave
chocolate. She's going to crave chocolate every minute, every hour of every day. Of
course, she'll become super fat. Sarah the cow will be a super fat cow because she's
going to crave chocolate.
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The Art of Power Mini-Story Text
Hello, welcome to the mini-story for "The Art of Power." Let's begin.
* * * * *
Sally was a cow. And Sally the cow craved chocolate. She desired chocolate.
She had to have chocolate all the time. She always wanted chocolate. She
craved it.
Who craved chocolate?
Sally, Sally the cow craved chocolate.
What was Sally?
She was a cow. Sally was a cow.
How did she feel about chocolate?
She craved it. Sally craved chocolate. She wanted it so much. She thought about
chocolate all the time. I must have chocolate!
So she craved vanilla, right? No, wrong, she did not crave vanilla she craved
chocolate. She thought about chocolate all the time.
So do you think Sally was thin or fat?
Well exactly, of course, she was fat. She was obese, very, very fat. Sally was an
obese cow.
Why was she an obese cow?
Because she craved chocolate every day and she ate chocolate every day.
Why was she fat?
Because she craved chocolate and ate chocolate every single day, all the time.
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Healthy Heart Vocabulary Text
Hi, this is AJ, welcome to the vocabulary lesson for "Healthy Heart." Let's get started.
Our first word is fibers, fibers. So in the story there was quote from Herman Melville,
he said, “A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men." Fibers are really like
strings, basically, it's just strings. It's just long strings. Usually we talk about fibers, for
example, in clothing. So if you have, you know...your clothes are made of lots of little
fibers that are woven together, that are put together. Each individual string is a fiber,
so fiber.
So he's saying we're connected by a thousand strings. So, obviously not really, but if
you think about it kind of poetically it's a metaphor. So you can imagine that we're
connected in a thousand different ways to other people. We cannot be separate.
That's what the quote means.
Alright and then next we have the phrase moved by. The sentence says "Perhaps this
explains why we are often moved by people caring deeply for one another." Now you
know the normal meaning of move, to move, but to be moved by something. I was
moved by the movie, for example. It has a different meaning. When you say was
moved by something, it means that you felt strong emotion, it made you feel
emotional.
Usually, kind of...kind of positive emotions, not negative emotions. So you could say,
for example, you go to see Titanic, the movie Titanic, a romantic movie. And you say
"Oh, I was moved by that story." All right, it means it made you feel very emotional.
Maybe you cried and it was so, you know, powerful, it was a very emotional story. So
you say "I was moved by the story. The story made me feel emotional," strong
emotions.
So in this quote it says "We are moved by people caring for one another." So when
we see two people who care a lot for each other, they love each other a lot, we are
moved. It means we feel strong emotion also, just seeing them. Just seeing two
people who are very kind to each other, who love each other a lot, if we just see them
we also feel some kind of strong emotion, right? We are moved by them, they make
us feel strong emotion also.
Alright, our next word is implication, implication. And the sentence said "There are
also medical implications to whether we think of others or only of ourselves." There
are medical implications. And implication is a consequence or a result, a result of
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Hello, welcome to the point of view stories for "Healthy Heart." Same stories, different
points of view, different timeframes, let's start.
Since he was a teenager Zach has loved bright, expensive clothes. In fact, since he
was a teenager he has always worn conspicuous clothes when he was on the street.
He has always been very conspicuous every time he walked on the street, since he
was a teenager and continuing until he was an adult, until very recently.
And since he was a teenager Zach has been totally self-absorbed. Zach has been
completely self-absorbed, he has only thought about himself and his clothes. So,
since he was a teenager he has loved bright, expensive clothes. Since he was a
teenager he has always been conspicuous, noticeable. And since he was a teenager
he has always been self-absorbed, he has only thought about himself and his clothing.
But one day he bought a coat made from gold fibers and he bought the coat at Saks
Fifth Avenue. This coat was worth $72 million, a super expensive coat! Zach loved
the coat. He looked in the mirror and he talked to himself and he said "I'm so
handsome. I'm so wonderful. I'm great!"
However, a few weeks later, he woke up one day and looked in the mirror and he felt
sad. He realized that he had lost touch with his happiness. He had lost touch with his
happiness, he had lost touch with other people and so he felt very sad. He realized
that he was totally alone.
He went outside for a walk and while walking he saw a poor homeless man, a poor,
suffering, hungry, homeless man. Oh, so sad. And Zach was moved by his suffering,
he felt emotional because of the man's suffering. And so Zach said "Here, take my
gold coat and buy a big house."
And the man took his gold coat, he was so happy. He ran to the bank, he sold the
gold coat, he bought a big, big mansion and he ate a lot of food. And Zach also felt
very happy because he helped this man. He connected again with a person, so Zach
was very happy and the homeless man was also very happy.
Okay, that is the end of our first point of view story. As always, in these first stories,
you'll hear a change, usually, and the change is between something that has been
happening a while. It started in the past and it has continued happening for some time
and then we change because something just happened suddenly.
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Healthy Heart Mini-Story Text
Hello, this is AJ, welcome to the mini-story for "Healthy Heart." As always, let's take a
deep breath, leť's get our bodies standing up strong or sitting up strong. Lift your
head, big smile on your face. I'm doing it now, so do it with me. Feel good?
Let's move a little bit. Let's move our bodies a little bit. I'm standing up right now I
can't really move, but l'll jump around a little bit and get my body moving. You move
your body, too, and let's start. Now for the mini-story, here we go.
* * * * *
There was a guy named Zach. Zach loved bright and expensive clothes.
Did Zach love dull clothes?
Oh, no, no, he did not love dull clothes, he loved bright clothes.
Did he love bright clothes or did he love dull clothes?
Well, of course, bright. He loved bright clothes.
What kind of clothes did he like?
He liked bright clothes and expensive clothes.
So did he love black and gray and brown clothes?
No, no, no, those are not bright colors. He loved purple and green and pink clothes.
He loved bright clothes.
Who loved bright clothes?
Well, Zach, Zach loved bright clothes.
He loved bright, cheap clothes, right?
No, no, no, no, wrong. Not bright cheap clothes, bright expensive clothes. Zach loved
bright, expensive clothes.
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Hi, this is AJ, welcome to the next lesson. This one is called “Healthy Heart" and l'm
going to talk about, again, a section from Healthy at 100 -- the book Healthy at 100 --
by John Robbins. I've already talked about it a little bit and I'm going to talk about a
different section this time.
And in this section John Robbins talks about another factor that contributes to a long
and healthy life. Now before we talked about diet and what you eat and how that can
really affect your healthy, your longevity, meaning how long you live, how strong you
are, everything.
Well there's another very important factor other than diet. Diet is very important, but
another important factor that John Robbins found when he studied all these people
who were 100 years old or more and they were still strong, still healthy, well he found
something else.
So a kind of vegan diet, that was number one, but the next thing he found was these
people have strong social ties. They have rich social lives. It means they're not alone.
They have friends, they have family. They have communities. They're connected to
other people in many, many ways. And so what he found was that emotion and love
and caring and connection were equally important to diet and exercise. They're both
very important.
So let me read a section from his book -- the same book -- Healthy at 100 and then ll
talk more about it. Here we go.
"We cannot live for ourselves alone,' wrote Herman Melville. 'A thousand fibers
connect us with our fellow men. Perhaps this explains why we are often moved by
people caring deeply for one another.' 'There are also medical implications to whether
we think of others or only of ourselves,' as Larry Scherwitz found when he conducted a
most unusual study. He is now the Director of Research at California Pacific Medical
Center's Institute for Health and Healing in San Francisco.
"Dr. Scherwitz taped the conversations of nearly 600 men. About one-third of these
men were suffering from heart disease, the rest were healthy. Listening to the tapes,
he counted how often each man used the words I, me and mine. Comparing his
results with the frequency of heart disease, he found that the men who used the first
person pronouns the most often had the highest risk of heart trouble.
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Hello, this is AJ. Welcome to the vocabulary lesson for the "Attractor Factor." Now the
vocabulary lesson is sometimes a little...not so exciting, right? It's probably the least
exciting lesson, so it's even more important that you breathe and you bring your
shoulders back and you move your body during this lesson.
You have to keep your energy high so you'll focus, so you'll concentrate on the
vocabulary lesson. Are you feeling good? Wake up! Let's do it!
v Our first word is activate (verb is to activate).
And Joe said we don't realize that we are activating the attractor force in a negative
way. Activate really means to turn on. That's all it means. It means something was
off before or something was not happening, something was not working and then
suddenly you turn it on, suddenly it is working. Suddenly it is happening.
So if you activate the attraction force, the attraction power, it just means you turned it
on, right? It was off before now you're turning it on. Now you are causing it to start.
v Our second word is manifestation (verb is to manifest)
A manifestation just means a happening. It means something becomes real. It means
to become real if you're using it as a verb, to manifest. To manifest means to become
real. So, you could say my idea manifested. It became real. Before it was only in
your head, it was an idea.
For example, I have this goal, this dream to speak English well. Then, finally, I speak
English well. You can say I manifested my idea. The idea manifested, it became real.
Before it was an idea and now it's real. So a manifestation is a thing that becomes
real.
All right, he's saying if you focus on these positive things with your mind, eventually
they will become real. They will become real manifestations, real things or real
happenings.
V Our next word is springboard.
He says that your dreams are your springboard to miracles. A springboard is
something that begins a process, something that causes a beginning or a start. It
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Hello, welcome to the POV (Point of View) mini-stories for "Attractor Factor." Let's
begin.
Since starting 10 years ago, Eve has felt bad. She has felt tried every day. She has
had no energy. This started 10 years ago. Before 10 years ago she felt great, but
since 10 years ago...you know until now, until recently...she has felt very tried. She
has not had energy. She hasn't had energy.
In fact, starting 10 years ago she has gotten sick all the time. She has frequently
gotten sick, since 10 years ago until recently. And during that time she has tried many
different things. She tired exercise one time, it did not help. She tried various
medicines and drugs, but none of them helped.
So, since 10 years ago, during this time she has been very frustrated. She has been
frustrated because she felt bad. She has been frustrated because she couldn't find a
solution. Until one day she decided to abstain from eating mice. So on that day she
decided “no more mice." She was surprised. After a few days she felt better. And
she felt better, stronger and more healthy, it was amazing.
And so, she forbid her kittens from eating mice, too. And they began to feel healthier
and stronger. She thought "wow!" And this became the springboard for a whole new
healthy life. It was the sudden beginning of a whole new healthy life. Abstaining from
mice was the springboard to a whole new healthy life for Eve and for her kittens.
And so next she abstained from eating fish, too, and she felt even better. So, she
forbid her kittens from eating fish and they felt even better. Wow, she was feeling
great. So finally, she decided to abstain from drinking beer. She stopped drinking
beer, no more beer and she felt outstanding!
Now, of course, she did not forbid her kittens from drinking beer because we all know
that kittens need beer to grow. So her kittens continued to drink beer, but they
abstained from mice and they abstained from fish and they felt great, too. And so, as
a result, Eve and all her kittens became healthy and happy and had lots and lots of
energy.
All right, that's the end of our first story.
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Attractor Factor Mini-Story Text
Hello, this is AJ. Welcome to the mini-story for "Attractor Factor." Let's begin.
There was a cat named Eve.
Was Eve a doggy?
She was not a doggy, she was a cat.
Eve was a cat. She was a cat who decided to abstain from eating mice.
What did she abstain from?
She abstained from eating mice.
Did she abstain from eating chicken or did she abstain from eating mice?
Well, she abstained from eating mice.
Who abstained from eating mice?
Well, Eve. Eve the cat decided to abstain from eating mice.
So did Eve eat mice?
No she didn't, she did not. She abstained from eating mice, she did not eat mice.
What was Eve?
A cat, Eve was a cat.
Did she eat mice?
No she didn't. She abstained from eating mice, she did not eat mice.
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Attractor Factor Main Text
Hello, welcome to the next lesson. This is AJ from EffortlessEnglishClub.com. Let's
start our next lesson the "Attractor Factor."
The Attractor Factor is the name of a book by Joe Vitale. Joe Vitale is an interesting
man. He is an Internet marketer and businessman. He's kind of a marketing expert,
especially for Internet marketing. But, he also writes about very general topics,
how to achieve your goals and how to reach your dreams in life.
about
He's a very positive man. He has a lot of energy, a very interesting and creative guy.
I really like him. I use some of his information and skills that he teaches. Tuse it for
my own business, for my own Internet marketing.
He wrote this book The Attractor Factor as a more general book to help everybody get
what they want in life, to help everybody achieve their dreams. The Attractor Factor is
a quite simple book, a very simple idea and yet it's very powerful. Joe believes that
we attract things to our life. And how do we do that? With our thinking and our
emotion.
So for example, if we always think very positive thoughts and we always have very
strong positive emotions, he believes we will attract positive things and positive people
into our life. On the other hand, if we think about negative things, problems all the
time, and we're always feeling negative, frustrated, angry, sad or depressed, than we
will attract more negative stuff into our life. It's the basic idea of The Attractor Factor.
And so, he states very strongly and clearly that we have to be careful what we focus
on, what we think about and which feelings we feel during every day. Because of
course, we want to attract, bring, positive things into our life, things and people and
events. So, I'm going to read a little bit from The Attractor Factor and then l'll talk
more about it. Here we go.
Most people I talk to every day know what they don't want. 1 don't want this
backache. T don't want this headache. T don't want these bills. I don't want to
struggle in my business.' You know the list. You have one of your own.
Unfortunately, that's where most of us stop.
The nature of our conversations, the nature of our newspaper reporting, the
nature of our radio and television shows and our talk shows surround us with
ideas of what we don't want.
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The Effortless
English Club
Automatic English For The People
Leaders Make Mistakes Vocabulary Text
Hello, this is AJ, welcome to the vocabulary lesson for "Leaders Make Mistakes."
Let's go to the beginning. They have a phrase "they make no bones about it." Tom
Peters says "Leaders make mistakes and they make no bones about it." So that's a
little idiom there, to make no bones about something. When you say "they make no
bones about it", it means they don't apologize for it or they don't try to hide it. They
don't feel bad about it. That's the meaning of this phrase.
It means you do something and you're not worried about it. You don't apologize for it.
You don't feel bad about it. You don't try to hide it. You feel good. So it says they
make mistakes and they make no bones about it. It means they make mistakes and
they don't feel bad about making the mistakes, they feel good. They make mistakes
and they don't apologize. They don't say "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I made a mistake,"
right? They make no bones about it. They do not apologize.
They are direct and honest about it. They don't try to hide it, they don't feel bad about
it and they don't apologize. They make no bones about making mistakes. They don't
apologize for making mistakes. They don't try to hide their mistakes. They don't feel
bad about mistakes. They make no bones about it.
Okay, then a little later he says "In placid times leaders can pretend to have the
answers." Okay, placid. Placid means calm, calm (c-a-l-m), calm. So it means
nothing is changing, right? Everything is calm and slow and relaxed. So during placid
times in the economy, in history, when everything is calm, then the leaders can
pretend they are strong. They can pretend they are perfect. They can pretend they
know everything. So in calm times leaders could, in the past, pretend to know
everything. They could pretend to be perfect.
But he says "In turbulent times leaders must have the best questions, not the best
answers." They can't pretend to know everything. Instead, they have to ask a lot of
questions, always asking questions, asking questions. So that's what happens in
turbulent times, what must happen in turbulent times.
Now turbulent, of course, is the opposite of placid. Turbulent means not calm. It
means rough or changing fast, chaotic, so in chaotic times, in rough, difficult times, in
times when everything is changing quickly, in turbulent times, turbulent. Turbulent is
the opposite of calm, turbulent, not calm.
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Leaders Make Mistakes Mini-Story Text
Hello, this is AJ, welcome to the mini-story for "Leaders Make Mistakes." Let's start.
* * * * *
There were two penguins; their names were Todd and Louis. Todd and Louis
were penguins, they lived in Antarctica.
Where did Todd and Louis the penguins live?
They lived in Antarctica.
Did they live in Florida or Antarctica?
Well, they lived in Antarctica.
What were Todd and Louis?
Well, they were penguins. Todd and Louis were penguins.
Were they ducks?
No, they weren't. They weren't ducks they were penguins. Todd and Louis were
penguins and they lived in Antarctica.
How is the weather in Antarctica?
Well, it's cold. The weather is always very cold in Antarctica.
Did Todd and Louis like the cold?
Well, they were penguins, but they did not like the cold. Todd and Louis didn't like the
cold, they were strange penguins.
What didn't they like?
Well, they didn't like the cold. Todd and Louis the penguins didn't like the cold.
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Leaders Make Mistakes Mini-Story Text
Hello, this is AJ, welcome to the mini-story for "Leaders Make Mistakes." Let's start.
* * * * *
There were two penguins; their names were Todd and Louis. Todd and Louis
were penguins, they lived in Antarctica.
Where did Todd and Louis the penguins live?
They lived in Antarctica.
Did they live in Florida or Antarctica?
Well, they lived in Antarctica.
What were Todd and Louis?
Well, they were penguins. Todd and Louis were penguins.
Were they ducks?
No, they weren't. They weren't ducks they were penguins. Todd and Louis were
penguins and they lived in Antarctica.
How is the weather in Antarctica?
Well, it's cold. The weather is always very cold in Antarctica.
Did Todd and Louis like the cold?
Well, they were penguins, but they did not like the cold. Todd and Louis didn't like the
cold, they were strange penguins.
What didn't they like?
Well, they didn't like the cold. Todd and Louis the penguins didn't like the cold.
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Leaders Make Mistakes Main Text
Hello, this is AJ, welcome to the next lesson. This one is called "Leaders Make
Mistakes" and it comes from a book called Leadership by Tom Peters.
Tom Peters is one of my favorite business writers. The reason I like Tom Peters is
that he's very passionate. He's not a boring businessperson. Most business books
are boring, but not Tom Peters. His books are excellent and they're full of passionate,
emotional language and words and emotional passionate ideas about how to make
business into something more, something special, not just greedy little people trying to
get more money, but really trying to contribute and help people and do great things.
So that's what Tom Peters writes about and it's why I really like him. He's got a great
Website TomPeters.com and he's got a lot of great books. And this book that I'm
talking about today is called Leadership. And there's a little section and the section is
called "Leaders Make Mistakes", so l'm going to read this small section and then l'll
talk about it more. So here we go.
"Leaders make mistakes and they make no bones about it. On the wall of my writing
studio in Vermont hangs a quotation by David Kelly, "Fail faster, succeed sooner."
Next to that quote hangs another by Diane Arbus who told her students “Learn not to
be careful."
In placid times leaders may think they have all the answers. In turbulent times leaders
must have the best questions, questions that encourage others to undertake voyages
of mutual discovery and the essence of that process is letting people screw up. If you
try new stuff you screw up. If you try a lot of new stuff you screw up a lot. In fact, the
best leaders make big mistakes.
Mistakes are not enough, big mistakes are mandatory.
My all-time favorite PowerPoint slide is this 'Reward excellent failures, punish
mediocre successes.' These tumultuous times beg for bold initiatives. While
thoughtless recklessness is not to be applauded, the word reckless must be examined
carefully.
Most people who change the world -- Martin Luther King, Galileo, and Picasso -- they
were indeed reckless, but not thoughtless. The Martin Luther Kings of the world, the
Galileo's, the Picasso's, the Churchill's, the de Gaulle's, they attempted to create an
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